A joint media project of the global news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote a vision of global citizenship which has the potentiality to confront the global challenges calling for global solutions, by providing in-depth news and analyses from around the world.

News & Analysis

SEOUL (IDN) - In run-up to the UN High-Level Summit in September in New York, a milestone United Nations conference in South Korea has highlighted the need for a new vision for education, which it aims to realise by 2030 with a view to fostering global citizenship by inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. [P04] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSIONPDF

The Greek philosopher Plato is reported to have said: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” What could be more suited to foster global citizenship than jazz for peace and freedom?

PARIS (IPS) - Against the backdrop of civil unrest in Baltimore, Maryland, the fourth annual International Jazz Day was celebrated with events around the world and appeals for peace, unity and dialogue. [P03] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

This article tells the story of two women who fought against two evils: the practice of sexual slavery in Hindu temples, and forced labour. Finally free of the yoke of dual-slavery, they are determined to preserve their hard-won existence, humble though it may be. Stories like this highlight the need to spread the word that given the individual determination there is a way out of what appears to be a hopeless situation. [P02] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | SPANISH

In Bangladesh, a country of 157 million people, 49 percent are women. A media survey has found that they are more often “seen" in illustrated sections of newspapers than "heard". Majority of them do not have access to television or cannot read newspapers. Community radios are trying to rectify the situation. Momena Ferdousi, a 24-year-old student, hailing from the country's north-western Chapai Nawabganj District, is one of Bangladesh's up-and-coming radio professionals, who is determined to give voice to the voiceless, poor and illiterate women, as a first step towards sharing their concerns with the world at large. [P01] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

The conference, held from March 14 to 18 in Sendai – the centre of Japan’s Tohoku region that bore the brunt of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami leading to the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe – agreed on a new framework for the next 15 years (2015-2030) to reduce the risk of disasters that kill and destroy livelihoods. [P] CHINESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | NORWEGIAN

SENDAI, Japan (IPS | IDN) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has announced a new 10-year global plan to support country efforts to reduce the risk of disasters that kill people and destroy livelihoods. The plan was unveiled at the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which ended on Mar. 18.

SENDAI, Japan (IPS | IDN) - The Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction concluded on Wednesday after a long drawn-out round of final negotiations, with representatives of 187 U.N. member states finally agreeing on what is being described as a far-reaching new framework for the next 15 years: 2015-2030. [P] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

SENDAI, Japan (IPS | IDN) - Women play a critical role in reducing disaster risk and planning and decision-making during and after disasters strike, according to senior United Nations, government and civil society representatives. [P]JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSIONPDF

SENDAI, Japan (IPS) - As the world inched towards a crucial United Nations Conference in Sendai, Japan, Margareta Wahlström, head of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), assured that there was “general agreement” on the need to “move from managing disasters to managing disaster risk”. | JAPANESE

BRISBANE (IPS) - Although global citizenship education has now received the recognition it deserves, much of the literature recycles old agendas under another name – ‘education to promote peace and justice’, ‘sustainability’, ‘care for the environment’, ‘multi-faith’ and ‘multi-cultural understanding’ – and so forth.

Another literature proposes that children learn specific global knowledge: world history, global ethics, global law etc. In my view these approaches do not grasp the revolution that global citizenship involves. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

This news feature tells the story of how groups of Israelis and Palestinians are empowering communities at daggers drawn to consider themselves as part of a solution, rising above parochial interests and swimming against prevailing political tide, thus lending a vibrant local dimension to the broader concept of global citizenship.

HEBRON, West Bank (IDN) – The ancient biblical city of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, is holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is steeped in historical, archaeological and religious treasures. [P] GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | NORWEGIAN

PARIS (IDN) - “What the world needs now is love, sweet love” goes a syrupy Burt Bacharach-penned song from 1965. But love is difficult, if not impossible, to teach, so education experts have come up with another solution: teaching respect for all.

Why choose Fostering for Global Citizenship

This website is part of a joint media project of the global news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote a vision of global citizenship to confront the global challenges calling for global solutions, by providing in-depth news and analyses from around the world. >>>read more>>>

CAIRO (IDN) - One does need to think back half a century ago, to remember how much harmony and peaceful coexistence reigned in Arab countries between Muslims, Christians and Jewish. Nor does one need to recall how hundreds of Muslims gathered to protect Christians praying in their churches in Egypt during and after the 2011 popular upraising. Or how organised groups of Copts acted as a human shield to save Muslims praying in Cairo's Tahrir Square from extremists' attacks during the successive waves of popular protests.[P] PERSIAN (FARSI) | JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The future of religion in U.S. politics lies not with conservatives but rather with religious progressives, social scientists here are suggesting, with a faith-based movement potentially able to provide momentum to a new movement for social justice.

According to a new report from the Brookings Institute, a think tank here, the current religious social justice movement can be compared to the period of civil rights activism in the mid-20th century. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSIONPDF | SPANISH